How many times have you wished you could undo an email you sent to someone? Maybe you shared a bit too much or sent it to the wrong person.

Gmail has a solution for that known as Undo Send.  Originally listed in Gmail Labs back in 2009, this feature allows you to quickly fix your trigger happy mouse finger by letting you undo a sent email.

Today a friend sent me an email by accident that contained some personal information; including a secret he planned to disclose to someone else. I got a good laugh out of it because I already knew the information but it was a sharp reminder how easy it is these days to accidentally send sensitive information to the wrong people via email as our address books fill up with countless people named Bob, Chris, Sarah and the always gender neutral Pat.

Undo Email Sending Mistakes

Gmail’s “Undo” feature works for both Gmail and Google Apps domains.  Once enabled, you’ll be able to click the yellow highlighted link titled, “Undo” and exhale with relief.

To get started, navigat to your Gmail’s “Mail Settings” under the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner.  Then go to “Labs” and scroll down until you see “Undo Send” and enable that.  Make sure to click “Save” so your changes take effect.

Then they added the feature to allow you to specify the number of seconds you’d like to undo the email within.  Of course, I went with the maximum of 30 seconds although I have noticed when I attached invitations to my Gmail messages, the undo has not worked in the past.

You will find this under “Settings” once you click the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner of your Gmail.

Thankfully, my friend’s secret is safe with me.  Last week, a business acquaintance accidentally included me on an email where she was talking about me.  I replied to acknowledge I’d recieved it and we all had a good laugh.

Mobile Gmail Undo

This year, with the ongoing popularity of the Android platform on a growing number of smartphones, the introduction of several Android Honeycomb tablets and the updates to Gmail email navigation on these devices, Google released a gmail undo version for mobile as well.

Photo credit: Google Gmail Blog

Summary

It’s nice to be able to take a step back your email with undo.  Of course, some argue that Gmail doesn’t have an undo feature but a delayed sending option.

Have you ever been embarassed after sending an email to someone?  Share your story!